Women in politics: We speak to women in Whitehall

Luciana Berger, MP for Liverpool Wavertree

When www.sexymp.co.uk launched earlier this summer, Labor’s Luciana Berger was the first woman to top the poll. But it’s not an accolade she is very impressed by.

“While I’m all for engaging the public as much as possible [in politics] I don’t think [this website] is the way to do it.

"You expect this kind of thing if you go into Big Brother but as a politician it’s not what we look like, it’s what we deliver,” she argues.

Berger acknowledges that she doesn’t fit the traditional mold of what an MP has tended to look like – think male, gray hair, slight paunch - but this is to be welcomed, she says.

“I think it’s right that it’s changing. If people are flicking through the parliament channel on television they should see a group of people that represents British society across the board – different ages, ethnicities, the whole gamut.”

And, she adds, as a thirty-year old woman she can offer a personal insight on some of the political issues that resonate with young female voters in the way that older politicians can’t. “I’m one of the few MPs that’s still paying off their student loans,” she says.